It’s raining 300 men
Via Tom Galloway, we have this little display of… well… oh, just watch, it’s quick and dirty:
Words fail me.
The Mix : What are people talking about today?
MIKE GOLD: The secret Luddite?
Yesterday, I turned on my cell phone for the first time in about two weeks. I was at I-Con in Long Island New York and was waiting to meet up with some friends. I only turn on my cell when I’m out of town or at a convention, and the fact that I didn’t have to have it on in two weeks had made me happy.
First among my 19 voicemails was a message from Harlan Ellison, admonishing me for misspelling Edgar Allan Poe’s name in a ComicMix news story back when. He’s right, and I should have caught it. I’ve been a fan of Poe’s longer than anybody except maybe Jack Kirby. The problem is, when I’m under deadline pressure (and with the Internet that’s 24/7) I over rely upon my spellchecker. Sadly, those suckers ignore words that are misspelled into other real words. I let it do my thinking for me; my bad.
Mr. Ellison often refers to himself as a Luddite, disparaging our computer-communications society. I sympathize. Coincidentally, the very night before my wife and I had watched the first half of a Doctor Who serial, "The Mark of the Rani", which was set in 1811 at the birthplace of the British Luddite movement. They did a good job of disclosing the reasons behind the movement, except that I don’t think a pair of Gallefreyan Time Lords encouraged the Luddite movement.
For the history-challenged out there, the Luddites were members of a movement of English workers at the dawn of the Industrial Age who destroyed the machinery that they thought was taking their jobs. It is believed the media named the participants after Ned Lud, one of their ilk, although that might be apocryphal.
You can hardly blame them. The ruling classes always instill such fears in their workers as a means of keeping wages low and discipline high. There are always all sorts of odd ramifications to this philosophy – for example, our marijuana laws were imposed under the belief that they would deter Mexican immigration and take jobs away from the “common man.” If this sounds like our current immigration attitudes, well, that’s no coincidence.
Zombies with good attitude
Zombie movies are nothing new. Nor are zombie movies with attitude. But there’s been a preview making the rounds of a movie about a bunch of zombie "eliminators" called Z•E•R•O, or Zombie Emergeny Response Operations for long. Possible another section of the Department of Homeland Security that isn’t being talked about.
Unlike most such pre-distribution movie previews, War of the Dead: Z•E•R•O is very character-based. We know there’s a lot of icky monsters around, but the preview focuses on Z•E•R•O and its team-members: a group of ick-fighters that are probably slightly too good for Reno 911 and certainly too good for their patronizing shrink.
What happens to War of the Dead: Z•E•R•O is up to the usual Hollywood forces, but the preview is fun and worth checking out. Kudos to creator / Executive producer Joe Sena and writer / director Michael Disario for jumping into the shark pool; we wish them the best of luck.
Check ’em out at warofthedead.com.
Comic books still rule the movies
Comic books continue to lead Hollywood box office business as TMNT, based upon the comics books of the same letters beat out 300 $25,400,000 to a mere $20,500,000 in estimated weekend North American box office receipts.
It was the first weekend for the Turtles’ latest movie venture, and the third for the Frank Miller property. Thus far, 300 has earned nearly a quarter-billion dollars worldwide. Then again, box office totals in Iran are expected to be rather low.
Whereas both movies were released by Warner Bros., neither one is based upon a DC Comics property. DC is a unit of Warner Bros.
Next up: Spider-Man 3, in just a few weeks. ComicMix carried the link to the final movie trailer; scroll down and you’ll find it.
Carmine Infantino talks!
Jimmy Gimli gives us a first look for Free Comic Day, Carmine Infantino says there’s too much sex in comics, and the Isley Brothers riff on Bruce Willis — all this, plus validated parking in this edition of the ComicMix podcast.
Click here to listen:
GLENN HAUMAN: A personal plea from I-Con way
Okay, it says that this is theoretically an opinion column, but really, this is all fact.
Friday night, while I was escorting a number of actresses from the annual Destinies Mystery Guest show at I-Con, we were forced to go through a crowd of LARPers to exit the building.
The smell was, shall we say, pungent. And that’s being polite. I’ve smelled better rotten meat and curdled milk. The comments between us after we could breathe again were savage.
Guys, I hate to have to say this, but clearly I must because some of you aren’t getting the message:
ATTRACTIVE WOMEN ARE LAUGHING AT YOU BECAUSE OF THE WAY YOU SMELL. FOR GOD’S SAKE, BATHE REGULARLY AND WASH YOUR LEOTARDS.
Feel free to support the cause by buying one of John Kovalic’s t-shirts here.
There will be longer posts about I-Con when we get a few more minutes. It’s a madhouse here.
Oh, and before I forget: ComicMix‘s Robert Greenberger will have a film preview panel tomorrow (Sunday) in Javitz at 1. It’s not on the program, but get there early anyway.
MATT RAUB: The Last Mimzy
Greetings, movie geeks! Last we spoke, you were all on the receiving end of my 300 bash, and after a handful of death threats from the “Frank Miller is God Fan Club,” I’ve digressed. We’re moving on this week to a flick that I can relate to, in Robert Shaye’s The Last Mimzy.
Now for those of you who aren’t in the know on this latest adolescent epic, the premise is that a brother and sister come across a mysterious box on the beach. It’s explained to us that the box is from the future and is filled with all kinds of equally mysterious sci-fi gadgets, or as the kids so affectionately called them “toys.” Once they start to play with these toys, both the boy and girl begin to gain special powers. Now fans of the USA show The 4400 may be saying “hey, this sounds a little familiar.” And I agree with you. The concept of the future sending technology back in time to save the human existence does sound a bit familiar, but this is done entirely through the perspective of the two kids.
By doing the entire film through the point of view of our two tiny heroes, this flick brought me back to what it was like to be a geeky kid with superpowers given to me from the future… or something. The perspective stayed so far on course that we (the audience) begin to hate the parents of the main characters when they become frightened and angry with these new found “toys” and what they are doing to their children. This can best be described by remembering the point of view from a little movie from the 80s called E.T. Much like that film, we all felt like we were keeping the secret from kids’ parents as much as they were, and that was exciting.
Videogames sharpen eyesight
I’ve long considered myself on the 20th century side of the technology gap. I’m geared for slower entertainment, like reading. Even the shifting camerawork on most TV dramas makes my eyes hurt.
So I have no idea what to make of the new study indicating that "playing action video games for an hour or so daily actually helps sharpen visual acuity." The study’s lead author, Daphne Bavelier (a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester) notes that "action-video-game play changes the way our brains process visual information.
"After just 30 hours of training, people who didn’t normally play video games showed a substantial increase in the spatial resolution of their vision, meaning they could see small, closely packed letters, like those on an eye chart, more clearly, even when other symbols crowded in."
As a person who doesn’t normally play video games, and really resents my bifocals, I view this as potentially good news, and await instruction from WomenGamers on how best to go about improving my vision.
State of newspaper cartooning
Via Tom Spurgeon, The Tacoma Daily Index’s Todd Matthews examines the current state and status of political and editorial cartoonists, with an emphasis on the Washington state papers. Quotes like "The state of newspaper cartooning nationally is not a happy one" and "Political cartoonists are a dying breed" do not seem to bode well.
Similarly, via Heidi, Lev Grossman at Time Magazine also observes that "Comic strips in newspapers are dying. They’re starved for space, crushed down to a fraction of their original size. They’re choked creatively by ironfisted syndicates and the 1950s-era family values that newspapers impose." and like Matthews, Grossman is hopeful that the new media will be the savior of editorial cartoons and strips, taking a more in-depth look at webcomics.
ComicMix will continue to follow the death and rebirth of these well-established artformsm, to see how well newspaper features can still flourish without being in the newspapers themselves.
More Heroes all summer long
If you were planning on pining away the summer lusting for new episodes of Heroes, well, we’ve got good news for you. NBC will be continuing its online graphic novel with new material right up until (and after) the second season starts this fall. The graphic novel extends the storylines of the series’ characters, giving added depth and information. Click through to http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/novels/, just as seven million other folks have been doing since the series went up last September.
